1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing system in which services are provided to end users of apparatuses connected via a network to each other and an information processing method and a service providing method for use with the information processing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been generally known a client server system (CSS) including a network and a multiplicity of apparatuses which are connected via the network to each other and which include server machines having resources such as a large-capacity disk and a plurality of client machines to be operated individually by users so as to communicate information between the linked apparatuses. In most applications of the client server system, resources of server machines are shared among the users, for example, a disk resource of a server machine is commonly used to share a file thereon and/or a printer coupled with a printer server is shared among the users. Thanks to the recent development of basic software such as a network operating system (to be simply called network OS herebelow) and hardware including server and client machines, it is possible to implement environments of the client server systems for highly advanced utilizations and applications thereof.
For example, the Open Software Foundation (OSF) established as a standardization committee of computer industries has proposed an OSF DCE (to be abbreviated as DCE herebelow). In a complex network environment including different kinds of apparatuses, DCE provides such services as a directory service, a yellow page service, and an access right service.
In the directory service, a name specified by a user is converted into address information in the actual network system. This service is similar to the telephone number indexing service according to a telephone directory. The yellow page service is an additional function of the directory service. In place of the name, there can be used a function or an attribute to attain address information, which is similar to the indexing service through a classified telephone directory. The certification and access right services are used to conduct a security check when a user subscribes to the system or operates functions of the system, for example, to examine whether or not the user possesses the access right. Namely, these services are supported to control the system.
OSF DCE has been described in detail, for example, in the “Technology of OSF DCE” published by Soft Research Center Inc. on Aug. 25, 1992 (ISBN 4-915778-15-0).
According to services provided in the present CSS environments described above, when receiving a particular service, end users operating client machines are required to pay attention to usage of the service in most cases. For example, when a file is shared between clients, it is necessary to specify the file name assigned by the partner to the shared file and a position of the directory in the own client machine to which the shared file is registered (mounting of the file). Only after the above operations are completed, the file can be shared between the clients.
Some systems can be accessed by the end user without considering any particular service. However, in such systems, the system manager is required to beforehand set the desired services according to the present stage of art. According to DCE, services are enriched primarily for the managers conducting the system management. This consequently leads to a problem that end users can actually access only the information items and services beforehand set by the system manager.
Additionally, as the range of apparatuses and devices connectible to CSS is expanded, there appear various kinds of end users accessing the system. This increases chances in which the system is operated by beginners of the system who are learning information related to operations and functions of information processing apparatuses. In such a case, there arises a problem that the services supported by CSS and available by end users are hardly utilized.
Furthermore, when accessing the system, most end users do not have special knowledge about specifications and characteristics of apparatuses of the system. For example, the users operate apparatuses without recognizing functions and services supported by devices (such as disks), for example, the remaining capacity and transfer performance of each disk and reliability of data storage. Consequently, only the system experts can appropriately utilize the system resources. Namely, the system can be operated only in an inefficient fashion by the ordinary end users.